The Twelve Kingdoms (33 page)

“Especially for one of their number who is also an escaped convict.”

“There is that.” She looked at Ash and her eyes filled with both exasperation and love. “You can guess some of what he'll ask of you. I hope you're truly ready to pay his price.”

“A pardon, no doubt. Which is not in my power to grant.”

“Not only for him—for all the Tala prisoners. You'll have the power one day, thank Glorianna for that.” Ami seemed uncertain, but made a decision. “There's something else.” She rummaged in her pack and drew out the pink-gowned doll our mother had left her. Hers was far less pretty than mine and, bedraggled to begin with, had suffered from being tossed around on her journeys.

“You're carrying it around with you?” I tried not to convey how crazy I thought that was, but she glared at me.

“Yes, I do. This is why.” She pricked her finger with the point of the dagger, squinching up her face, and held the bead of welling blood up near the doll's head. The pink-gold floss of it deepened into a darker red. I leaned in, to see more closely. “You try,” she said, handing me the doll.

Curious, I waited until the red faded away, then simply flexed my arm enough to break open the scab on a minor wound where a talon had torn through my shirt. The head turned even deeper red, and Ami raised her brows. “Even more than me. Who'd have guessed that?”

“More what?”

“Strength of Tala blood, apparently.”

“But you and I should be the same amount—same mother and father.”

She shook her head. The shorter length let it curl nearly into perfect ringlets, and they bounced as she did so. “Doesn't work that way. For some reason the balance is different in different people. I bet Andi's blood would make it turn nearly black. Same with Stella. Astar has less than I do; Ash, quite a bit more. More like you, and his mother was all mossback.”

I contemplated the significance of that. Ash's healing ability seemed to be another sort of shape-shifting, only turned outward. “Andi said that my fighting abilities come partly from the same thing. That what allows them to shift makes me faster and stronger.”

“Why does that annoy you?”

I laughed a little, that she saw through me. “I worked hard for my skills.”

“Ash is the same way, as you'll recall.”

“Yes.” I'd nearly killed him once. Would have, had it been any easier. Fortunately the man wielded a blade nearly as well as I did. Though I hadn't known then who he was or that Ami loved him, killing another of her true loves would have begun to look like a conspiracy. “So you used the head to find people of Tala blood and thus trailed Terin into the Wild Lands.”

“Yes. He was moving with a pack and we couldn't gain on them. Always days behind.” Her pretty lips pursed with frustration.

“How many?”

“It varied. Ash figured about thirty in his core group. Maybe another thirty that came and went. Scouts and so forth.”

“Good to know.” I mentally reviewed the bodies in the clearing and the lizards we'd killed in the ambushes. Some of those would have been staymachs and not in Ami's count. Still, we'd had to have killed at least forty.

“We tried cutting them off, but they made it across the border—we got the information on that in time to let us cross in a different place—a bit of a shortcut. One that cost us some time in the end because it was more difficult to track them inside Annfwn. When we finally caught up to them two days ago, they were ready for us.”

“They ambushed you?”

“My fault. They made Stella cry. I heard her and, well, lost my head. Ash had Astar, so he was smart enough to hang back. Terin believed I was alone. He promised to give me Stella if I'd fuck him.”

“In so many words?” I couldn't help but be amused to hear the foul word drip so easily from her pink mouth.

“Exactly. So I led him on, insisting on some privacy, knowing that Ash would be nearby and could more easily sneak up if Terin was distracted.”

“I'm surprised Terin went for that trick.”

“I can be pretty seductive when I want to.” She shrugged it off. “It can be a useful weapon.”

“Clever.”

“Thank you.” She gave me a flirtatious flutter of her lashes, then sobered. “I thought Ash wouldn't get there in time, and it wasn't easy, with his men having carried Stella off again. I had my dagger ready, in case I needed to stick him before he could, well, stick me, when Ash arrived. He nearly had him, but Terin sensed him somehow, rolled off me, and had me by the hair, using me as a shield.”

“So you cut your hair.”

She grimaced. “Which will take forever to regrow, but yes. Rat bastard.”

“You got free, but Terin escaped with Stella, and you trailed him here and found us.”

“Nearly too late,” she agreed. “I can't tell you how I felt, hearing you sing that old lullaby. Gave me the chills. Though I wasn't surprised. I knew you'd find us sooner or later. Frankly I'd hoped it would be sooner.”

“We had a number of delays. I wanted to be here sooner.”

“I know that, and you—” She took my hand and squeezed, smiling through tears. “You came as fast as you could, just as you promised. Now that you're here, we'll get Stella back. I know it in my heart.”

“Yes, we will.” It had to be. “As soon as Harlan awakes, we'll get moving.”

“Then you're in luck,” Harlan's deep voice rumbled. “He's awake.”

I
held still for a moment, grasping for calm, sending a fervent pulse of gratitude to Danu—and Moranu, too, for her gifts of magic—finally believing it might be real.

And finally looked.

He sat up, taking in the sleeping Ash and raising an inquiring eyebrow at me. Unable to restrain myself longer, I went to him and kissed him long and hard. “Don't you ever do that to me again,” I said when I could tear myself away.

“Well, if you command it, Your Highness,” he replied with a broad, affectionate smile.

“I do command it. Don't make me hurt you.”

“What am I promising not to do?”

“Oaf.” I tried to wriggle free, but he held on, as strong as ever.

“I'm serious, my fierce hawk. What happened?” He frowned. “I remember finishing the fight. That wolf tore me open, but I had to get you to the horses before I bled out. And you . . .” He raised a hand to brush my cheek. “You said you loved me.”

“Trust you to remember
that
part clearly.”

He smiled at that. “You sang me a lullaby. I thought I was dying.” Bemused, he let me go—though not by much, keeping one big arm around me as he sat up—and ran a hand over the healing pink skin of his side, then focused his gaze on Ami. “Princess Amelia. It's an honor to greet you. Forgive my discourtesy.”

“I think, under the circumstances, you're forgiven.” She cocked her head. “How did you know who I was so fast? I seriously doubt I look like any of my portraits at the moment.”

“You look very like your sister.” He pulled me against his side, kissing my temple. “Though somewhat less fierce.”

“That was ever so,” she replied. “This is Astar, currently winding up to cause a fuss, I suspect. My consort, Ash, lies there, sleeping off the healing.”

“They arrived just in time,” I put in. “Ash saved your life.”

Harlan's visage darkened. “Raised me from the dead?”

“Not like that, no.” When he only continued to frown, I framed his face in my hands. “Not like the Temple of Deyrr.”

“How can you be sure? Neither of us knows their actual methods. Perhaps it's the same magic.”

He had a point. I glanced at Ami and she shrugged. “No idea what you're talking about. It's your turn to fill me in anyway.” She widened her eyes at my intimate entwinement with the mercenary and fluttered her long lashes, a deliberate parody of her former, more flirtatious self. “
So
much has happened.”

I grimaced at her but refused to be self-conscious. Instead I turned back to Harlan and kissed him. “All that matters to me is that you're alive. Why don't you wash the blood off and have something to eat. Then we'll be on the move.”

He wasn't completely mollified, but nodded, grimacing at the dried blood that saturated his trousers. Standing, he stretched, joints popping, muscles flexing.

“Here.” Ami offered him the canteens and a glorious smile. “Refill these while you're at it.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” He took them, seeming amused by her.

“No ‘highness' for me,” she corrected. “Just ‘princess,' or better, stick with Ami.”

His gaze flicked to me with an ironic and intimate smile, reminding me how I hadn't let him call me by name. It made me feel better, to see some of his concern dissipate. Grabbing one of our packs for fresh clothes, he strode down to the stream.

Ami watched after him, speculative and admiring, then gave me an unabashed grin and lifted one shoulder. “I'm impressed, Essla. I never imagined there could be someone who could not only stand up to you, but give back as good as you dish out. Now, quick, before he comes back—tell me how this happened.”

“I'm not gossiping about my love life with you.”

“Yes, you are. You
owe
me for all those years of zero interest in anyone at all. I was starting to think there was something wrong with you and—What? What did I say?”

“Nothing.” I shook off the tinge of sick at her words. I was over all that. “Here's the story in a nutshell.”

Harlan returned before I entirely finished, falling on the food Ami offered with gusto. He took Astar and played with him while he ate, the baby cradled in the nest of his lap, absurdly tiny in comparison and wildly happy to be there. Ami and I packed up the horses as I finished the tale. Leaving out a number of more private details.

“How is it you've not told all this yet?” Harlan glanced at the high angle of the sun.

“I had to hear Ami's story first.”

“And our auntie Essla has only been awake a short time herself,” Ami added, taking Astar with an oof and bundling him back into his carry pack.

“Essla?” Harlan grinned at me, unabashed by my glare.

“Ami's baby name for me,” I told him, turning the reproving look on her, with a similar lack of success. “She seems to have reverted to infancy just because she has her own now. Ready to load up?”

“Why have you only recently awakened?” His face had settled into that implacable look, and he scanned me. “You were injured, too, and you didn't say. Come here and let me see.”

“Barely at all.”

“Lost buckets of blood,” Ami cheerfully spoke over me. “A couple of times I couldn't find her pulse. I was frankly terrified.”

“You don't sound terrified,” I said, intensifying the warning look, which she continued to blithely ignore, cooing at Astar.

“You didn't die and I'm making a practice of counting the blessings of the moment. But your man should know what you gave up for him. What a near thing it was that you had Ash heal him instead of you.” She gave Harlan an angelic smile that fooled no one. “So he'll appreciate you.”

Harlan stood and went to his stallion, unstrapping one of the packs again. He grabbed one of the canteens, took my hand, and tugged me away. “We need to discuss this privately.”

“I'll be right here,” Ami called after us, well pleased with herself. I would deal with her later.

“We need to get going,” I protested. “We've lost too much time as it is.”

He didn't answer right away, but his hand stayed vised on mine. When he stopped just inside the shadows of the forest and turned to face me, his pale eyes slow burning in rare anger. “Undress.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Disrobe so I may tend your wounds.”

“They're not that bad, and—”

“Then it won't take long. Undress yourself or I'll do it for you.”

I put my hands on my hips. “I'd like to see you try.”

“You're so pale you're transparent,” he snapped. “I'm kicking myself for not seeing it before.”

“You had other things on your mind,” I pointed out in a dry tone.

“What did you give up—besides being healed yourself?”

I returned his scowl. “Nothing you need be concerned about.”

“I do need to. You had no right. No right at all to put yourself in jeopardy for me.”

“Oh, it only goes in one direction?”

“Yes.” He wrapped his big hands in my shirt. “Because you're more important than I am. Now, the very least you can do is let me tend to you. Do I rip this off or will you undress?”

“Danu!” I broke his hold with a sharp maneuver. One that I did not want to admit lagged several beats behind my usual speed and made my head swim, then throb. “I'll undress. But let's make this snappy. We have ground to cover. Ami took care of the worst of it.”

He didn't reply to that, silently retrieving supplies from his bag. I leaned against a tree to get my boots off. Fortunately for his continued good health, he did not comment when I got a little dizzy and had to sit, just gave me that accusing stare.

Heaving a sigh, he sat beside me, unwrapping Ami's bandages and running his hands lightly over my skin as he examined my many bites, lacerations, scrapes, and purpling bruises. “This is the worst one?” He prodded the wound on my thigh and I steeled myself not to wince.

“Yeah, pretty much. I think that's the one that really bled.”

“No surprise. Nicked the artery.” He poured some liquid over it, raising brows when I hissed at the sting. “Not so cocky now?”

I clenched my teeth. “Finish it.”

Without further comment, he doctored my other open injuries, then worked in some sort of liniment around them, massaging it into my aching muscles. The man had magic hands—as he knew and used from the beginning to seduce me, I realized—and gradually my body loosened, my eyes closing of their own will, though I fought to stay alert.

“Swallow this.”

I opened my eyes and wrinkled my nose at the open bottle he offered. “What is it?”

“It will help replenish your blood.”

“You should have some, then.”

“No.” His voice had that deep, eerily calm tone it did when he was supremely pissed. “You're going to drink it all. Do it, Ursula.”

“Danu, you're bossy all of a sudden.” I snatched the bottle, hardened my stomach because the stuff smelled truly awful, and chugged it. “You know, if we're going to stay together, you're going to have to accept that I'm a warrior and I'll get hurt from time to time.”

“I accept that about you. I love that about you.” He didn't seem any less angry. “But I'll not let you sacrifice yourself for me. You think it's your duty to take care of everyone else, no matter what it costs you. Not with me. Don't ever think you have to pretend to be strong for me or hide your injuries. If we're to stay together”—he paused, for some reason amused to throw my words back at me—“then you will let me take care of you. I insist on it.”

“Look, mercenary, you nearly died. You thrice-damned needed me to take care of you. I don't care if it wounds your pride.”

He sighed, ran his hands over me, and tugged me onto his lap, enfolding me in the protection of his body. “It's not pride, precious Essla. I'd just far rather die than lose you.”

“Well . . .” I trailed off, unutterably moved, remembering the dark despair of the night before. “I can understand that. When I thought you were dead, I wasn't sure how I could go on without you.”

“I'm sorry.” His voice muffled against my hair. “I'm sorry to put you through that.”

“As well you should be. Don't let it happen again. I'm holding you to that command.”

“I hear and obey.” He touched the backs of his fingers to his forehead in the
Elskastholrr
, eyes grave. Now that I knew what it meant, the gesture drove into my heart that much more, laying me open so that I had to look away.

“Can I get dressed?”

Laughing, he let me go. “Much as I love to see you naked, it's probably for the best.”

We were able to get Ash onto his horse without waking him by the simple expedient of Harlan lifting him into the saddle. Ami took up the other end of a long length of string tied to his wrist, to wake him should we need him, she explained.

“He sleeps through a strange warrior putting him on his horse, but a bit of string on his wrist will wake him?” Sounded highly dubious to me.

“You'd be surprised,” Ami replied, in a wry tone she'd adopted along with her newfound steel. She checked him one last time with such tender regard and care that it surprised me. The terribly scarred, hard-edged man was the last I'd have expected her to choose, the total opposite of everything Hugh had been. But perhaps that explained it all right there.

We rode hard and fast for a while, following Ami's direction this time. She'd come to know the area quite well during their days of chasing Terin in circles. We paused fairly often, however, usually when Astar began fussing. Ami tersely informed me she had zero intention of nursing at a gallop and she'd latch the baby onto my nipple if I wanted to know how it felt. Harlan took advantage of the breaks to check my injuries and make me rest.

“I can't imagine how I managed to rest and heal before you came along,” I grumped at him.

“Me neither,” he retorted. “It's a wonder to me that you weren't in worse condition when I met you than you were.”

Traveling in those frequent short bursts did have the advantage of letting us continue riding through the night, which meant we made the beach by dawn and—to my considerable relief—quite a bit farther south than where we'd turned inland a few days before. So far as I could tell, as the morning had dawned moist and foggy, obscuring most of the landmarks. I'd know more once it burned off, but perhaps we could make the cliff city within half a day. Andi had been in Terin's hands for far too long, and it ate at me, what we'd find when we caught up to them.